MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

5/31 Extra bases

The bad news is Alfonso Soriano was placed on the disabled list Tuesday with a strained left quadricep. The good news is that he doesn’t think he’ll need the full 15 days to get healthy. Tyler Colvin was added to take Soriano’s spot on the roster.

“It’s very frustrating,” Soriano said. “The team needs the regular players because a lot of guys are on the DL. Things happen for a reason and I hope when we come back, everybody comes back strong.”

The Cubs now have made 15 roster moves in a five-day span. They’ve placed six players who were on the Opening Day roster on the DL: Soriano, Jeff Baker, Reed Johnson, Marlon Byrd, Andrew Cashner and Matt Garza.

* Garza will throw a side Wednesday and if all goes well, could be back for the Cubs series in Cincinnati next week.

* Colvin may play some center field with Marlon Byrd out. He batted second at Iowa to get more at-bats.

* Mike Quade tweaked the lineup Tuesday and moved Carlos Pena into the No. 4 spot for the third time this season. Pena has reached base safely in 22 of his 24 games, and since May 3 was hitting .278 with seven homers, 18 RBIs and 19 walks. Aramis Ramirez, who has hit fourth most of the season, was 3-for-21 on the homestand and batting .118 (2-for-17) in his last five games.

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